Table of Contents

8.      An Interventionists support for Political Campaigns after the War:................. 1

Post War Political change Rosevelt, Truman and Dewey 1944 & 1948..................................................... 1

Harry Truman: VP who becomes President.......................................................................................................... 2

Dewey & the Republicans face Truman the Campaigner.................................................................................. 2

The Priest & Harry - Lets have some Prayers.................................................................................................. 2

Adlai Stevenson...................................................................................................................................................... 3

Adlai reluctant in 1952........................................................................................................................................... 4

First TV and Dewey - Truman early  morning surprise.................................................................................... 4

Dewey: The man on the wedding Cake with a fine record................................................................................ 5

Switching parties - voting for the person............................................................................................................... 5

Nelson Rockefeller Campaign............................................................................................................................. 5

Past experience in fundraising -applied to campaign............................................................................................. 6

Election night TV network making the call............................................................................................................ 6

Flying into small towns......................................................................................................................................... 6

Meetings Arranged and Canceled........................................................................................................................... 7

Loyola College....................................................................................................................................................... 8

President cancels event - fear of Conservative Basckers................................................................................... 8

An appreciative word & Hug from Nelson....................................................................................................... 8

Jacob Javits Campaign......................................................................................................................................... 9

Bus Tour in Queens & Tom Keefe's NYPD reputation........................................................................................ 9

National Rifle Association & Javits Moxie........................................................................................................... 9

Smooth campaign - Various constituencies.......................................................................................................... 10

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 06]

JKK:    In 1944 the democrats had nobody else to offer except Roosevelt. Roosevelt was a dying man then. It is generally admitted since that time, that he was dying and there was a great deal of aggravation. People wanted to make sure they got their own party in for Vice President. They thought the Vice president was going to be the next President. Of which he was.

Harry Truman: VP who becomes President

7. AKK:  So the Vice presidency was more contentious than the presidency.

8. JJK:  Yeah. There was talk of Harry Truman.  And there was talk about Wallace and there was talk about Jimmy Burns And so forth. But Harry Truman had a very astute guy, by the name of-- I forget his right name. He was an Irish politician from Missouri and he pushed Truman for all he was worth and Truman got the nomination. He was reluctant to take it. He had promised to back another guy. I think it was Jimmy Burns. But he got the nomination. Of course .he eventually became president. And he was great President.

9. AKK:  : How long did Harry Truman serve as President. 

Dewey & the Republicans face Truman the Campaigner

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 10]

10. JJK:           I think it was about the 12th of April. 1944, that Truman was inducted.  Sworn in as the President and he served until 1953.  So he ran again in 1948. And that was a terrifically big upset for Tom Dewey and the republicans. They figured that the war was over and these guys have been in for 16 years and we will knock them off. There won't be any problem at all. But they over looked the fact that things were going pretty good. We had won the war. And Truman put on a terrific campaign.  

The Priest & Harry - Lets have some Prayers

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 10]

10.  JJK:             I talked to a Priest out in Erie Pennsylvania. A Monsignor Watson, he later became the Bishop of Erie.  And he loved Harry Truman. He just loved him; Things were different in those days.  Harry came out and he went by train and he just talked and talked to millions of people I guess. And Father was telling me that he went out to see him when he talked in Erie. Father was in charge of the Catholic youth organization, so all the police knew him. He was right in the Front row when the President was talking.  So, we used to have meetings with him each Saturday morning and we would talk politics and all that stuff.  We said to him what was it like? And he said: Jack, it was great. I loved Harry Truman.  And he came out, there I was in the front Row. And I was saying: "you tell them Mr. President, you tell them".  And when it was all over I got so excited that I ran up to the Train. And jumped up - the cops all knew me and they saw the roman collar; things were different in those days, I grabbed his hand and shock it and I said "MR. President you are gonna win and you are going to win big".  And he looked at me and he said: "You are dam right father - but let's have some prayers." [chuckle]  He was quite a guy.

16. JJK:            He could have run again, the amendment was set up that a man could only run twice. But he had not run, and he was still eligible for it. But he figured he had pretty near eight years. He figured he had done his job. He backed Adlai Stevenson very strongly.

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 02]   

2.   JJK:              His staff had a great deal of admiration for Adlai Stevenson as a man and also as a politician and a statesman. They thought that if he did lose in 1952 that he would still be on the political horizon in the days ahead. And he would eventually become president. Well he got the nomination again in 1956 but he ran against the very popular Eisenhower and he was beaten. In 1960 the Kennedy's were too well organized to stop their Juggernaut. But Mrs. Roosevelt was very much for Adlai Stevenson. She thought for a while he might be able to stampede the convention and take away the Kennedy votes. But it didn't work out that way.

3. AKK:              Was there some feeling that maybe he went too soon? That if he had waited till 1960 or he would be too old then?

4. JJK:              The problem is if he waited to 1960 the Kennedy's weren't going to wait till 1964. And they were well organized, they had the money. They had lots of money. They were terrifically well organized and Adlai Stevenson just didn't make it. He didn't make a stab at getting the nomination. They were just hoping that maybe they could stampede the convention.  

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 05]

5. AKK:              What does that mean to "stamped the convention."

6. JJK:              Actually you go in and you have all your people there and they yell and scream.  I think it was 1940 and Roosevelt was running for the third time. And I think it was in Chicago and at the time there was a little bit of resentment of him running for the third time.  And some of the politicians were out to stop him -- but most of the bosses were for Roosevelt again. And it was in Chicago under the Democratic Party  - they were running it.   I'm not sure weather or not it was one of the Daily's who was the mayor a that time I don't recall. But in any event they had a guy down in he lower bowels of the arena and he had a public address system and all of sudden you would have this voice come booming our.  "We want Roosevelt, We want Roosevelt". And something like that would happen.  Of course he had the nomination in his hind pocket anyway. There was nobody else on the Horizon who seemed capable of becoming pre4sident. Plus the fact that the War in Europe was on and People felt they wanted somebody in there with experience.  They didn't want to gamble  - that is how he got it.   

Adlai reluctant in 1952

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 16]

16.  JJK:                  Adlai was reluctant to run in 1952. He was Governor of Illinois. He just didn't want to. But they kept after him, the politicians. And finally he accepted the nomination. There was a senator from Tennessee - whose name I don't recall. And he had won a couple of the primaries and nobody wanted him. So they prevailed upon Adlai Stevenson. He was a good man.  He was a real intellectual. He used to write all his own speeches. Other guys would have somebody else do it.

31. JJK;           He was our UN representative [for background note on Stevenson UN role see http://library.thinkquest.org/11046/people/a_stevenson.html  - Office: Ambassador to the United Nations, Age: 62, Time in Office: 1961-1965,  Born: 1900, Died: 1965]

32.  AKK:           One of the things you mentioned to me last time that I thought was interesting, you found them in 1956 quite well organized. In that Stevenson would give a talk somewhere n Manhattan...

33. JJK:            :           Yeah they would rush it right back to us and we would run it off on the machines and then we would give it out to the press. Of course it would be usually late at night and his train would be getting ready to go to leave for the next place/city and we would have all the copies down there....and you had no Xerox [to make the copies] in those days.

49.  AKK:           .What did the people like your self, who were a little involved in campaigns think?.  Did they sense a big change was happening at this time? All of you, How old would you have been then thirty something?

50. JJK:            I was in my thirties

51. AK you had been through the war, Uncle Smitty the same thing. You had hoped Stevenson would get in . now you had lived through Eisenhower.  

First TV and Dewey - Truman early  morning surprise

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 52]

52.  JJK:           Don't forget we had no TV. When we were growing up. The first instance of radio on the general scope would be about  1924. And I would think that possibly 1948 was probably the first time that we had an election. On TV. I remember your mother, it was her first vote. She loved Harry Truman. And so did Mrs. Hogan who lived next door to us. And they were looking at TV. And I remember , I went to bed early I thought that Dewey was definitely in. And your mother come back about four O/clock in the morning  and she says Truman's been reelected [laughter]. It was a shock.

53.  AKK:           She woke you up to tell you.

54. JJK:                        Yeah, She was so happy.

55.  AKK:           Were you happy too?

56. JJK:                        No I voted for Dewey. [chuckle] 

Dewey: The man on the wedding Cake with a fine record

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 58]

58. JJK:                        He was a fine talking voice , baritone and deep and he had been governor of NY and he had a fine record as the District Attorney for Manhattan.  But he had no personality. Teddy's Roosevelt's daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth said he reminded her of the little man on the wedding cake. [laughter] That was her description of him.

60. JJK:           I thought he was a real good administrator. I thought he would make a good president. And I guess I was a little bit weary after 16 years of the democrats being in.  

Switching parties - voting for the person

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 61]

61.  AKK:           So this was the first time you switched parties? To vote for Dewey?

62. JJK:            Yeah, but then I went right back. I voted for Stevenson [Dem 1952] , Stevenson [Dem 1956], Kennedy [Dem 1960], Johnson [Dem 1964],  Of course I voted for Humphery [Dem 1968] in 1968 and I even voted for Mc Govern [Dem 1972] who I was not too keen about. But I couldn't stand Nixon [Rep 1972]. I just couldn't stand that guy. He was too much.  

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 63]

63.  AKK:           But you had at least voted once Republican before you started to work for Rockefeller [Republican-Liberal/Moderate] in the 1964 primaries [Republican ] Against Goldwater -[Republican-Conservative],  What process went on. How did you get involved.

64. JJK:                        Well I was not too keen on Johnson. He got the job automatically. When Kennedy was killed.  And I thought Nelson [Rockefeller] - he was a very liberal guy and he had a good record. I just liked him. I thought he would be a good president.

65.  AKK:           And the Education thing, you told me about he had done a lot for education.. Note  [ For background on Nelson Rockefeller see http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/1/0,5716,65631+1,00.html]

66. JJK:                        Yeah and he went contrary to  the concepts of the leading republicans. That is why he never got the nomination. He tried to get it in 1964, by running in the primaries and he took Oregon.  And he went into California with a week to go - he was 12 points high in the pools.  But they just got every body against him.  The regulars in the party - the conservatives and Barry Goldwater got the nomination.

67.  AKK:           When you first got on his staff. How did that work. How did you get involved.

Past experience in fundraising -applied to campaign

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 68]

68. JK  :           I ran a campaign for a  couple of new buildings for  the Catholic Church in Arkansas.  It was very successful. I think we had a goal of about two million bucks and we raised about five million dollars. Which is an awful lot of money in those days, especially in Arkansas.  And Win Rockafeller was a very close friend o Monsignor 'Connel.  Who was my moderator on the campaign. When he [Win Rockafeller] heard his brother was going to run, he asked Monsignor if I would be interested in going with him. He thought because of my previous experience as a fund raiser and a campaign director - would be very helpful. So Monsignor got in touch with me and I said sure, if I could work it out with my company. 

69. AKK:            Were you still working in Arkansas at the time?

70. JJK:            No, This is  - I worked in Arkansas in 1962 and this in 1964.

72. JJK:            Win was the Governor of Arkansas then... And I went into Oregon and California with him.  

Election night TV network making the call

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 73]

73. JJK:            I remember Election night there. I was standing next to a guy and I think his name was Merrill Miller as I recall. He was with I think  NBC I'm not to sure this was along time ago. In any event, we are standing there and he will go on the air. And he says to me at eight o'clock we [NBC]  are declaring Nelson the winner. I said, how could you do that? He says we get the exit polls.  And he gets on at 8:01 and says NBC has declared Nelson Rockefeller the winner in the Oregon Primary. Just like that. .... they closed at eight. But, fraction of a second almost [and they announce the results].  

Flying into small towns

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 76]

76. JJK:                        I remember another day Bob Price. Who was the director of his Oregon campaign and I  were going out to meet some people in eastern part of the state so we hired a plane.  And we were delivering some materials for the little towns and we were looking around for a landing place. And the  pilot,  Cecil Leonard. He doesn't know where it is and so he finally sees a little road down there and he says I think that is it. And we are going in there and we are not too sure, we are going to the right place. And as we are going in Bob says , Gees, I hope Nelson appreciates what we are doing  for him today [chuckle]....

79.  AKK:           So you would  just hire a plane and say take me to the towns around here..... who would deliver it to the people itself?. Did you actually go out and..

82. JJK:                        No what we did. Was we left it there. In some cases we - Like we went into Baker and we had the Bishop of Baker for lunch. In a diner. Of course we wanted him to come out for Nelson - well not come out for him - just meet with him. So he could have his picture taken.             

83.  AKK:           And so if that were set up, he would come in a small plane the next day?

Meetings Arranged and Canceled

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 84]

84. JJK:            We would set it up so they could come in and all that. And we went to meet with Bishop Howard in Portland. I had it all set up. The Bishop said I would be delighted to met him and just talk to him. I don't say that I would vote for anything. But I just think that he is a politician and he is a Governor, and he is running. And he said, Adlai Stevenson came through when he was running for president [in 1952] and I was delighted to meet with him.  So I set it up and then Rockefeller ran behind on his schedule and he couldn't make it.[chuckle]....And the same thing, we had to cancel the Bishop of Baker coming in for the meeting. But you know these things. They are just almost on a minute to minute basis. Everything changes, weather, a bad plane connection or something like that.  I remember going into San Diego. One morning and we were supposed to have thousands of people. And there were just a couple. Something went wrong somewhere ...

88. JJK:                        [Rockefeller] showed but it was just the corporal's guard. He expected a big group. And the guys who were doing it, They fell down. Something went wrong somewhere. But I remember one night - the difference - we were up in Oregon and he ran late by a couple of hours and the people were still there at twelve O'clock at night in Oregon. And I remember out in, I guess it was in Disney Land. Thousands  of people.- the advanced men did such a good job. Thousands of people were on the line, just to shake his hand. Amazing. That people were coming out.

93.  AKK:           You mentioned that there were two buses. So this means that they were doing the busses a long time ago. The campaign busses.

94. JJK:            Oh well, in those things then, they have had buses and trains. Like in 1948, Harry Truman practically did the nation on the back of a train. He talked to thousands of people - thousands.  

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 95]

95. JJK:            We had a dinner in Los Angeles, a very posh hotel. And afterwards Nelson was on the line and he was shaking hands with the people. I was staying at the hotel. I walked in and I saw this very beautiful young girl about 20 or 21 years of age and she had her brother there in his wheelchair and they were looking like they were trying to get in. It  turned out later, that she came from a very wealthy Mexican family. And the boy had some sort of an illness and he was confined to a wheel chair and they were staying at the hotel they had a suite there.   I said. "Can I help you out?" So she said to me, She spoke better English than I did .My brother just loves Governor Rockefeller. And he wondered if he could get in and see him. I said, I'll check it out. There was a little brief stop for a while and I went up to him and said.  Nelson there is  a kid here from Mexico who just adores you. He is in a wheel chair and he is coming up for a special treatment in Los Angeles by the Doctors. And I wonder if I can bring him in to say hello to you. He says Jack, I'll do better than that, I'll stop the line and go out and see the boy. So he stops and says "gonna take just a few minutes, I'll be right back". We go out there and we ask the kid's name. And Nelson spoke perfect Spanish.  He asks the kid's name and he calls the secretary over and says  I want to send him a picture that is autographed by me. And he told the kid.  And the kid was just so elated.  And we were in that hotel for a couple of days. And every day  I went in there the mother and father and the sister they all greeted me. You would think I was the king [chuckle]

Loyola College

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 97]

97. J.K;           Yeah, and another time I got him on the Campus to speak at Loyola College, in Los Angeles, the Jesuit College. And we felt this is going to be big. Because he had been divorced you know . And they felt, boy, to get him on a Catholic Campus .. Well it won't do any harm, it will help. We are all set. We got all of the material out.

President cancels event - fear of Conservative Backers

And I get called in about ten o'clock that morning.  And the president of the college tells me that it is canceled. I said why?. We have been invited here by the history Department.. He said "we were afraid, that people get the impression that we were favoring him." I said "this has nothing to do with it. This is the History department. The University isn't inviting him". He says , "well I am sorry". So he called it off. And we had to cancel out. And I checked  later on and the guy who was the fund-raiser, he resigned in disgust. Because he said the reason it was canceled many of the financial backers of Loyola, were Barry Goldwater people and they told the President, " If you have this man on the campus, we will cut off your water" Meaning their contributions, and he backed down. And I met a Father Merryfield,  a couple of years after, about 1965. Or 1966.  He was the new president of the University. And he told me that as a result of the action of the then president, that 50% of the faculty were opposed to him from then on. He just made a  mess of everything. Some were for the cancellation and others were diametrically opposed to it.

An appreciative word & Hug from Nelson

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 97]

JJK:                  The next day we were up in San Francisco. He is speaking to a commonwealth group up there, a club. And he , Rockefeller, called me and said I understand  you are terribly upset about what happened at Loyola. I said " I'm more than upset, I could have let those Jesuits have it with everything I have." He said well, we checked your every  advance and so forth.  And you did everything right. We are proud of you. And I want you to know I think you were great. And he put his arms around me and gave me a big hug.  Long time ago. What is that about 32 years.

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 113]

113. JJK:          Then in 1968, I got a call from the Javits people and they asked me to go with them.  It came out of the Blue. the guys that knew I was with Rockefeller. He ran against Paul O'Dwyer. O'Dwyer was a very Liberal Democrat and he just didn't have a chance. And Javits was very liberal too, He was great speaker and a great politician.....

119. JJK:          I did everything with him: I set up meetings; I took care of supplies; I hired people. I just did about everything on the campaign that could be done. I got him set up to go around the state.....

Bus Tour in Queens & Tom Keefe's NYPD reputation

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 121]

121. JJK:         One day I had charge of  the bus tour. It was on a Saturday. And we went to Kew Gardens and Jamaica, all around Queens.   - and you had to push the people on the bus  - you had a schedule.to adhere to. So, I pushed this last guy in.  And he sat down and I sat next to him, I said are you from the New York ?Times? he says "No, I'm a plainclothes man from the New York City Police Department, I'm the guard for the Senator" Oh, I say, do you know my brother? And he says who is your brother. Sergeant Tom Keefe on the Mounted patrol. He was a young guy, about 30 years of age. And he said "Is he your brother?" I said yeah. And he says " If we had a thousand guys like him this would be the greatest, safest city in the world.- what a cop". And the next day he meets me and there are a lot of people around and he says Boy O Boy. you ought to meet Jack's brother, Tom, What a cop.! And I said to Tom, he knew him, what's his name. I guess he is just some kid, I guess I helped out once. [laughter]

122.  AKK:         ....the Senator would ride with you on the bus.? ......was he pretty open about the pressure he was under..?  

National Rifle Association & Javits Moxie

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para123]

123. JJK:          Towards the end, you would see if he was getting tired and we would try to save his energy . A thing they are talking about a great deal today the NRA [National Rifle Association]., And I remember he went to a meeting with them and he talked and he was opposed to their stand even back then....He was a very intelligent guy and he had lots of Moxie. He would speak his speech ,he would let people know. ......He was well established in the congressional community.  

Smooth campaign - Various constituencies

[Excerpt below, for full see  jk00mr18.doc para 130]

130. AKK:          So t was different to be on his campaign than to be on Rockefeller's? You had the edge on that [Javits reelection] campaign.

131. JJK:          Yes there was no question about it.  He was a smart guy. Real smart.. I remember setting him up to speak down around lower Broadway around Fourth Street. And he would go all over the city. We would go up through Manhattan. And Harlem, speak in Harlem. He was favorite of the black people too, they liked him. ....He was quite an asset to the state, to the United States Senate. He was always in the minority, but people listened to him.

JJK:                  I spoke for him at a couple of meetings, where I presented his views. One was a meeting of some sort of a council down in - a local setup - a community affair. In Greenwich Village. And then I also spoke for him in Queens Village at meetings of various societies and so forth. And then I would present his views. But when you are setting up for a meeting you just want to make sure of arrangements  - he can expound his views.